3TOJP
(The Three Temptations of Jennifer Pierce)
a play by Lee Shackleford
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Sterling Brewer and Kelly Holden in the first-ever 3TOJP
THE THREE TEMPTATIONS OF JENNIFER PIERCE (aka "3TOJP") has been ruffling feathers since its first tentative production in the mid-1990s. The energetic and light-hearted script aims to entertain while raising profound questions about a touchy subject: contemporary Christian evangelism. The result is that there's something in 3TOJP to offend just about anybody who is prone to taking offense.
Brief synopsis
Smart-alecky loner Jennifer Pierce makes a wager with her annoyingly square housemate Cindy, a challenge that Jennifer takes only to escape paying several months of rent she already owes to Cindy. The bet involves Jennifer sequestering herself in her apartment and waiting for God's "still small voice" to make itself heard. But instead of being alone for three days, Jennifer finds herself the focus of nationwide media attention when she apparently starts to undergo the exact temptations presented to Jesus during his forty days in the wilderness. The result is a clash between evidence and faith, prejudice and acceptance, and pride and humility.
But it is funny?
Well, you'd have to judge that for yourself. But staged readings of various versions of the script have been greeted with laughter from audience members large and small, young and old, secular and ecclesiastic. And Charlene Brown, dramaturg for the 2004 Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive, said, "This is one of the funniest things I've read in years, and I read a lot of scripts." She also noted some problems with the script which have since been corrected -- but a full production of the new 3TOJP has yet to be mounted. Who will be the first to take on the challenge?